The
session was led by FNMI Learning Partner Bill Montgomery as a way to
demonstrate how the stress of federal policies and the residential
school system not only impacted natives initially caught in that system,
but the generations that followed.

Standing at the front of the
cafeteria with eight aboriginal students – each representing a
generation – Montgomery told stories of individuals who had faced abuse
in the residential system, which was designed to destroy their culture
and assimilate them into mainstream society. The system took away
children without their parents’ consent, saw parents thrown in jail for
resisting, and children abused and descending into substance abuse,
putting further cracks in the family tree and pushing parents’ problems
on to their children.

The exercise symbolized how the first
generation to suffer in the schools was burdened by the abuse,
represented by a stone in a bag the students had to carry. As the impact
of the abuse and injustice was passed on to the next generation, more
stones were tossed in the bag, which got heavier and heavier as it was
passed down the “family line.”

“It gives participants an idea of
the hurt that has been passed on mostly through the experiences of the
residential schools and certainly other situations that have occurred
between First Nation and non-native people and how it has carried on
from generation to generation,” said Montgomery.

“Each student
represents a generation and the trauma they carried with them and how
when they passed on, those traumas didn’t just disappear – they were
passed on to their children and their families.”

But then
Montgomery called up other students to represent FNMI achievements that
have occurred through education and successful efforts to revive native
culture.

“We are becoming strong as a people and are able to
represent ourselves whether as authors writing down our histories and
our stories to create awareness, lawyers representing our issues in the
courts, or teachers having an ability to put First Nations’ perspectives
in our teachings.”

With each positive step, Montgomery pulled
stones out of the bag, ensuring that the burden was lighter, symbolizing
how the First Nations peoples are turning the corner and slowly
attaining wellness by recovering their culture.

“The most important thing is that we are learning our culture and our ceremonies and that in itself garners so much pride.”

Students at the conference said that learning about the residential school system had an impact.

“My
grandmother went to a residential school and the stories really hit
home,” said Rayjean Palluq, an Inuit student at Rockland District High
School.

Other activities undertaken during the two-day session
February 9 and 10 were: a smudge ceremony, a discussion on native
constitutional rights, creation of a wampum lapel pin, a talk about the
importance of the clan system, and native outdoor games.